Six full-time positions will be lost from the Department of
Conservation's Otago conservancy office in Dunedin in the
department's latest reshuffle to meet government budget cuts.
Doc announced yesterday it would set up new regional service
centres in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch as it
reorganised its systems for supporting field staff.
As a result, 96 jobs would be "disestablished" during the
next six months, including six of Dunedin's 141 full-time
positions and 18 from Southland's conservancy office of 148.
It is understood there was some relief in the Otago
conservancy office at the announcement, as it had been
thought up to 34 jobs could go in Dunedin.
Doc director-general Al Morrison said by moving the support
staff from a regional base into professional groupings "we
will be able to provide more cost-effective systems and a
stronger national focus to our work".
The regional centres would "pool" a range of services such as
legal services, planning and concession and science and
technical support previously handled in each conservancy.
Managers began discussions with affected staff yesterday and
would be working through options such as redeployment and
redundancy during the next six months.
The job cuts were in response to the 2009 budget cuts in
which $54 million was taken from the department over four
years.
A Doc spokesman said it was not known how many positions
would be created in the new regional centres, but the
"freeze" on filling any new vacancies had been lifted and
three positions in Otago's area offices would soon be
advertised.
Public Service Association (PSA) national secretary Brenda
Pilott said more job losses were tipped for next year from
Doc's conservancy and area offices.
"PSA members at Doc believe these changes will undermine the
department's effectiveness rather than enhance it."
Both staff and management at Doc were going to great lengths
to work with what was available but "this review appears to
cut dangerously deep into Doc's resources".
She said the bulk of jobs were going from four regional
centres - Northland, Tongariro-Whanganui-Taranaki,
Nelson-Marlborough and Southland.
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